History Main / InducedHypochondria

* ClassicDisneyShorts brought us "Donald's Day Off", were DonaldDuck's nephews prank him into thinking he's sick to the point of soon death. Made hilarious by how Donald is convinced of his "disease" to the point of ignoring logic and reason:
--->'''Donald:''' ''*walking with his eyes closed*'' I can't see! Oooow, ooooow! Oh me, oh my ''*Gets hit with a toy train*'' Ouch! ''*Opens his eyes, pushes the train out of the way, and keeps on being "blind"*'' OOOW, OOOOOW, OOOOOOOW! ''*Faints*''

* In the first installment of GordonKorman's ''MacdonaldHall'' series, George is already a hypochondriac, but Boots makes it worse by inventing a deadly tropical epidemic and convincing George that he has it.

* In the short HerculePoirot story "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb", the resident doctor diagnoses [[spoiler:leprosy in his friend who is actually suffering from a minor skin ailment, [[DrivenToSuicide driving the poor man to suicide]] in order to inherit his money]].

* Zigzagged in ''JoeVersusTheVolcano''. Joe was a hypochondriac to start with. Then his doctor informed him that he had a fatal condition, completely unrelated to all his symptoms. No longer having any reason to worry about his health, he immediately stops fretting about his imagined illnesses and feels much better. In the end [[spoiler:it turns out he wasn't sick at all, the doctor was part of plot to get him to agree to be a HumanSacrifice.]]

* In an episode of ''FullHouse'', Joey brought home two Counting Crows tickets and Michelle got upset that her sisters would get to go and she wouldn't. Danny made them draw straws and when Stephanie lost, she and DJ concocted a plot to convince Michelle she had the made-up "Shmedrick's Disease" so she would have to stay home. It ''almost'' worked until Michelle gave them a heartfelt speech about how she just wanted to go to the concert so she could be cool like her big sisters.

* In the ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Little Big Mom", Lisa is angered by Bart and Homer's slovenliness and convinces them they have leprosy to teach them a lesson.
* In the ''SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "Once Bitten", Patrick convinces Squidward that Squidward has Mad Snail Disease, kicking off a panic in all of Bikini Bottom. Slightly unusual example in that Patrick isn't trying to get rid of Squidward; mostly he seems to enjoy the attention and the fact that people listen to him and treat him like an expert.

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* In ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings The Two Towers]]'' Wormtongue has convinced King Theoden that he is far too ill to lead men into battle, possibly with the aid of a CompellingVoice. Gandalf convinces him otherwise.

* An episode of ''MalcolmInTheMiddle'' revolved around the brothers trying to dispose of evidence of what they consider to be the worse thing they ever did: convince their mother she had cancer so she'd be too distraught to get angry at them for their poor report cards.

* In an episode of ''DrakeAndJosh'', Megan somehow tricks Drake into thinking he has a horrible disease that can only be cured by soaking his hands and feet in several gallons of [[ToiletHumor lizard pee]].

* In ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'', when Emil finds a bruise in his face and [[{{Hypochondriac}} asks Mikkel if there's risk of scarring]], Mikkel tells him that face-bruises can turn ''cancerous'' if not properly bandaged. Made even funnier because when Emil then tells Admiral Olsen that his face is bandaged to prevent face-cancer, Olsen [[OhNoNotAgain recognizes that lie and starts looking around for Mikkel.]]

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* In ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'', when Emil finds a bruise in his face and [[{{Hypochondriac}} asks Mikkel if there's risk of scarring]], Mikkel tells him that face-bruises can turn ''cancerous'' if not properly bandaged. Made even funnier because when Emil then tells Admiral Olsen that his face is bandaged to prevent face-cancer, Olsen [[OhNoNotAgain recognizes that lie and starts looking around for Mikkel.]]

* BugsBunny was fond of this trick, even to the extent of using spotted glasses to convince Elmer Fudd he was "seeing spots".

* Used non-humourously in the novel ''Angel's Kiss''. A character gets petty vengeance on an apparently healthy man who slighted him by telling him that he looks ill. He is so convincing that the man goes to his doctor- and discovers he has cancer.

* In ''{{Shrek}}'', Shrek and Fiona convince Donkey that he doesn't look so good. They were actually just using him as an excuse to spend another day together, but he's so neurotic that he falls for it anyway.

* Happened a couple of times on ''Series/{{Mash}}'' as the surgeons used it to get an annoying superior officer out of the way for a little while. Once (possibly the last time they used this device) Hawkeye and BJ got in a serious disagreement, because Hawkeye removed the appendix of a person who didn't need his appendix removed.

* In ''ADayAtTheRaces'', this is the reason Dr. Hackenbush is so well trusted by Mrs Upjohn:

* In the short HerculePoirot story "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb", the resident doctor diagnoses [[spoiler:leprosy in his friend who is actually suffering from a minor skin ailment, leading the poor man to commit suicide, in order to inherit his money]].

* In the short HerculePoirot story "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb", the resident doctor diagnoses [[spoiler:leprosy in his friend who is actually suffering from a minor skin ailment, leading him to the poor man to commit suicide, in order to inherit his money]].

* In the short HerculePoirot story "The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb", the killer [[spoiler:convinces a man suffering from a minor skin ailment that he has leprosy, leading the poor man to commit suicide]].

* In one episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible'', the team tricks a man who mass-produced counterfeit pharmaceuticals into believing that he's contracted the disease that his phony drugs are supposed to cure in order to make him give an EngineeredPublicConfession about the quality of the medicine the doctor at the clinic (Actually Barney) wanted to give him.

* In DC Comics, a doctor fakes a medical report to con TheJoker into believing that he's dying. The doctor hopes to "scare him straight". Instead, the Joker goes on a [[TheLastDance final rampage]] of such hideous scope that it becomes a CrisisCrossover.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', "The Order 23 Job." The team notices a CorruptCorporateExecutive about to go away to Club Fed seems to have germophobia... so they drug his water, send him to the hospital, then hijack an entire wing to make him think he's ended up in the middle of a pandemic.

** Another episode has Squidward trick [=SpongeBob=] that he (Squidward) has contracted "Squid's Disease" in order to get [=SpongeBob=] to leave him alone. [=SpongeBob=], however, being paranoid, begins to believe that he caught it.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has a rather odd example in SCP-1025, which [[spoiler: causes hypochondria-by-proxy: others perceive anyone who reads it as contracting a number of dangerous diseases. It caused panic in several researchers before another Foundation agent took the book away and [[MundaneSolution stuck it in a box where it can't affect anyone else]].]]